Comments on: What can you do while waiting for a call to start?

By: Nithya Vinjamoori

Nithya Vinjamoori — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 16:14:10 +0000

This is great! Thank you for publishing a blog post on my question!

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 12:50:36 +0000

In reply to Heather. @Heather - great tip. I bet you can get whole days scheduled while waiting!

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 12:50:16 +0000

In reply to Gillian. @Gillian - definitely this issue comes up in different forms in other fields, and waiting for patients (just as they're waiting for you!) is certainly one of them. I suppose reading things for work, or some of the practice tasks (marketing etc.) might fit in that time.

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 12:48:42 +0000

In reply to Linda M. @Linda M - ugh, being on hold with insurance companies must be the worst. Such a waste of your (and the patients you could be seeing) time!

By: Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 12:47:38 +0000

In reply to Vcm. @Vcm - definitely a good idea for tackling those piles without giving it time you could be doing other things.

By: Vcm

Vcm — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 01:34:55 +0000

I declutter my office. You have the call on speaker and muted.then you attack those pesky piles of paper. Sift through newspapers or whatever. Plus you can often continue the declutterkng while your taking the call. I basically only clean my office while on conference calls. It’s a ( great) habit now.

By: Linda M

Linda M — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 23:53:35 +0000

In reply to Gillian. I’m a nurse who works for an outpatient physician so I feel your pain. So much of my work is fragmented. And the time I spend on hold with insurance companies- oh my!!

By: Gillian

Gillian — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 11:23:53 +0000

I have recently been doing a lot of thinking in this area. I don’t have conference calls, but I am an outpatient physician so I am always either waiting for someone to be roomed or they are waiting for me. Certain days I can predict this will be more of a problem (bad weather always results in lots of weird blocks of time). I keep a list of things that have to be done daily that can be done in short snippets (email, approving prescription refills, responding to staff requests), but I still feel like this is time I fritter away. I know there are certain things I cannot do with this time (patient phone calls–they always take much longer than I think they will), but I need more ideas of things I can do in 5-10 minute chunks.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 20:16:06 +0000

This happens to me all the time! (Except when I’m the person who’s late, but I’m trying to make that less common.) The most useful thing I’ve found is actually using the time I’m waiting to check for agendas and likely cancelations for other upcoming meetings. My brain is already in ‘scheduling’ mode, so it feels like a natural fit, and it’s more useful than email.